Idols

First, for those that don't know, this blog is managed by blogger.com, a Google product. They apparently did an update that made what had been a heretofore easy process fairly infuriating, and I'm pretty tech savvy. Thanks, Google!

The words that got my attention today were Psalm 115:3-8:

³ Our God is in heaven;
   he does whatever pleases him.
⁴ But their idols are silver and gold,
   made by human hands.
⁵ They have mouths, but cannot speak,
   eyes, but cannot see.
⁶ They have ears, but cannot hear,
   noses, but cannot smell.
⁷ They have hands, but cannot feel,
   feet, but cannot walk,
   nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
⁸ Those who make them will be like them,
   and so will all who trust in them.

We’ve read much about idol worship, but we’re entering a period of Israel’s and Judah’s history where they’re going to practice it like never before. God’s first commandment, given 500 years prior, was to have no other gods. I’ve touched on it in the past, but seriously, what IS an idol?

These verses make it crystal clear what an idol is—a MAN-MADE object, and what kind of person worships a man-made object? The kind that considers man to be the pinnacle of creation. As we’ve discussed much this past year, idol worship is alive and well in the world today. We see it in the worship of possessions, status, wealth, but most often in the worship of SELF.

But without God, WE can’t speak, see, hear, smell, feel, walk or talk. Without God, we’re just senseless fools. Verse 3 describes God as well as any verse in the Bible—“he does whatever he pleases.” We might like to THINK we do what we want, but God knew everything we were going to do BEFORE HE CREATED THE WORLD. That’s more than can be said of any idol, real or imagined.

Scott